RELIGIOUS STRUGGLES.
Caste, the natural product of slavery, did not stop at the door of the
sanctuary, as might be presumed that it would, but entered all, or
nearly all, of the Christian denominations of our country, and in some
instances even pursued the negro to the sacramental altar. All churches
had their “Negro-pew,” where there were any blacks to put into them.
This was the custom at the South, and it was the same at the North.
As the religion of the country was fashioned to suit the public
sentiment, which was negro-hating in its character, the blacks of the
United States would have formed a poor idea of the Christian religion
in its broadest sense, had not an inward monitor told them that there
was still something better.
The first step towards the enjoyment of religious freedom was taken
by the colored people of Philadelphia. This was caused by the unkind
treatment of their white brethren, who considered them a nuisance in
their houses of worship, where they were pulled off their knees while
in the act of prayer, and ordered to the back seats. From these and
other acts of unchristian conduct, the blacks considered it their duty
to devise means of having a house for religious worship, of their own.
Therefore, in November, 1787, they seceded from the Methodist Church,
in Philadelphia, formed a society, built a house to meet in, and set up
for themselves.
Although the whites considered the blacks as intruders in their
churches, they were, nevertheless, unwilling to allow them to worship
by themselves, unless they should have the privilege of furnishing
their sable brethren with preachers. The whites denied the blacks
the right of taking the name of Methodist without their consent, and
even went so far as to force their white preachers into the pulpits
of the colored people on Sundays. The law, however, had more justice
in it than the Gospel; and it stepped in between the blacks and their
religious persecutors, and set the former free.
In 1793, Rev. Richard Allen built a church for his people in
Philadelphia, and henceforth their religious progress was marvellous.
In 1816, Richard Allen was ordained Bishop of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church; Morris Brown was ordained a bishop in 1828; Edward
Waters in 1836; and William P. Quinn in 1844. These were known as the
Bethel Methodists. About the same time, the colored Christians of New
York, feeling the pressure of caste, which weighed heavily upon them,
began to sigh for the freedom enjoyed by their brethren in the City of
Brotherly Love; and in 1796, under the lead of Francis Jacobs, William
Brown, and William Miller, separated from their white brethren, and
formed a church, now known as the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Church. This branch of seceders equalled in prosperity their brethren
in Philadelphia.
The first annual conference of these churches was held in the city of
Baltimore, in April, 1818. The example set by the colored ministers of
Philadelphia and New York was soon followed by their race in Baltimore,
Richmond, Boston, Providence, and other places. These independent
religious movements were not confined to the sect known as Methodists,
but the Baptists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians were permitted to
set up housekeeping for themselves.
The Episcopalians, however, in New York and Philadelphia, had to suffer
much, for they were compelled to listen to the preacher on Sunday who
would not recognize them on Monday. The settlement of the Revs. Peter
Williams at New York, and William Douglass at Philadelphia, seemed
to open a new era to the blacks in those cities, and the eloquence
of these two divines gave the members of that sect more liberty
throughout the country. In the Southern States, the religious liberty
of the blacks was curtailed far more than at the North. The stringent
slave-law, which punished the negro for being found outside of his
master’s premises after a certain time at night, was construed so as to
apply to him in his going to and from the house of God; and the poor
victim was often flogged for having been found out late, while he was
on his way home from church.
These laws applied as well to the free blacks as to the slaves, and
frequently the educated colored preacher had his back lacerated with
the “cat-o’-nine-tails” within an hour of his leaving the pulpit.
In all of the slave states laws were early enacted regulating the
religious movements of the blacks, and providing that no slave or free
colored person should be allowed to preach. The assembling of blacks
for religious worship was prohibited, unless three or more white
persons were present.